Although Banpresto was already partially owned by Bandai, it has been announced that as of April 1,2008, Banpresto’s game development will fully merge with Bandai Namco. Many gamers are aware of the game developer Banpresto for such games as the Summon Night and Super Robot Wars series.

Banpresto as a company and publisher will still be around and will be focusing their work on prize machines for arcades. Bandai Namco Holdings already has plans to shift around two of the existing Banpresto subsidiaries. Pleasure Cast and Hanayashiki, both of which operate amusement facilities, will also become subsidiaries of Bandai Namco.

Newtype magazine December issue previews the characters and the new VF-25 variable fighter design that will appear in Macross F (Frontier), next year’s television sequel to the Macross franchise of love triangles, pop music, and robotic mecha. A 25th anniversary program special called “Frontiers of Macross” will broadcast this winter with a retrospective on the previous Macross project and clips from the new series.